Christopher Columbus was wrong when he reported to the King and Queen that the world is round. In fact, the world is flat and so are many of our classrooms in this great nation.

For years, students learned within the parameters of a building, which then separated them into rooms. Students would attend class daily and the teacher would present the daily lesson. This is how a school day has progressed for years. And in many US classrooms, it still does. However, this not the case in three high schools in Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

Students in Van Meter, Iowa, Burlington, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are experiencing education in a new room. Yes, they still go to class in a building, with walls, doors, and windows, but there is something different about these three classrooms. They are all connected. The classroom is flat.

Last year Mrs. Miller taught a personal learning network and social media class at Van Meter High School on a smaller scale. "I told Bill [Brannick] about it when he visited with his Superintendent and Technology Director last spring to Van Meter." Says Miller "Lets do this together. Let's connect our two schools!" So over the summer, Mr. Brannick and Mrs. Miller worked on designing this class together using a Google Doc. Closer to the school year in #edchat one night, Mr. Larkin decided to jump on board with his Burlington High School PLN class.

The Virtual Classroom

The class is designed to teach Web 2.0 skills, digital citizenship, personal network building, and social media responsibility and practice. The students in all three of these classes have never met in person; however, they have all connected via Skype and their class blogs. They have also had many professionals come and speak to them via Skype. This type of learning is limitless and allows students to broaden their scope of the world. "Since I have started using Skype and blogging," notes Jesse Hasenwinkel, junior at Van Meter High School, "I have been able to virtually meet the people that can help me get the answers I need for what I am searching for in school and one day, in my career."

Each week students write a blog post on topics such as defining a personal learning network, using Skype in the classroom, and how to promote blog traffic. Students subscribe to each other's blogs using Google Reader and leave comments for each other. Some students in these three high schools have made great connections and found common interests. They are expanding their learning opportunities and through the efforts of the teachers and principals, engaging with vast community of learners.

The critic in all of us may say this is simply using the tools and distracting from learning. This is a statement each student in each of these three classes would eagerly contest. Reanne Maskart, a junior at MBAPCHS states, "You have to adapt to the world around you or progress can never happen. That is the ultimate goal of education, right? Progress. Continuous progress." The ability to adapt to a world in constant motion is a key skill that all of the students involved in this project clearly realize.

There are plenty of new skill sets at work and one of them is necessary in every facet of life: Being an effective communicator. These students are speaking, writing, and collaborating with people they have never met. "Everything that I have learned in class," says David Loomis, junior at MBAPCHS, "will help me use technology in a responsible way that can promote my creative ideas." In higher education and the work force, this skill is necessary. Michelle Morgan, a senior at Burlington High School states, "For example, I would create my personal learning network or PLN on ideas for college, tips and such, on swimming and diving, and other miscellaneous subjects that interest me." This type of learning is allowing students to create learning communities in which they have the ability to share common interests. Students must learn not only to be an effective communicator, but an efficient, responsible one. This class is accomplishing both. Principal Patrick Larkin comments, "I am amazed at how little the students actually know about connecting with others for educational purposes. They use social networking solely for socializing. It has been great to see the lightbulb start to go on in regards to them seeing these tools as a resource."

The Role of the Teacher

Mr. Larkin, Mrs. Miller, and Mr. Brannick are not just letting their students venture out into this brave new world of social media alone. They are providing them with the essential skills of what it means to be a digital citizen. They are teaching responsible use of social media and removing the taboo from Facebook and Twitter. These tools can open many doors and provide opportunities for students if used in a responsible manner. Brianna Perry, a junior at Van Meter High School says, "This class is teaching me how to shift through information, how to find the information, experts, etc. that will be beneficial to me. [It's} teaching me how to be a responsible, digital learner." The fact that some schools simply block these tools and never teach responsible use is like placing locks on a fence surrounding a pool but neglecting to teach kids how to swim.

Critical thinking via technology

The students in these three classes are learning in an environment that is familiar to their generation and exciting. These students are learning how to be critical readers and thinkers, while opening up rich, academic conversations via blogs, Twitter, and Skype. Mrs. Miller says, "My students cannot stop talking about our connected classroom. They have made so many new connections and realize that their classroom is not simply limited to a room, but is an expansive canvas."

This is the where the excitement in education begins. All of these students are learning beyond the classroom walls. Many of them correspond via their blogs after school or update each other on common interests via Twitter. They realize that what they put on the Web will be effectively permanent and that responsible digital citizenship is necessary in all facets of social media.

What these students are learning is invaluable and should be integrated into more of our classrooms. The opportunity for teachers to bring in authors and speakers to their classroom is out there. We simply need to make this happen and give our students the best opportunities to learn. At the end of the day we, as educators, hope students can walk away from class saying what Amy Ly a junior at MBAPCHS says:

I have enjoyed learning with people from different environments and experiencing learning outside of a single classroom. Though we may all seem the same, each and every student has different opinions and ways of learning; therefore, with the sharing of ideas through classrooms via blogs and Skype, we, all, as students are given greater opportunities for success.

I loved this post. I especially like the verbage, "digital citizen". We are currently in the digital/technological era, and students need to be equipped with these types of skills in order to survive outside of the classroom walls. I completely agree with these PLN's. Our History teacher loves telling students to "go to the place where you can find the information". We have so much information at our fingertips; however, in our rural town, students are still coming to school lacking this type of knowledge.
Moreover, I wouldn't be suprised to see google docs creeping into more classrooms. I have used google docs to teach an Advanced Algebra Applications course. The students totally benefit from it and it minimizes paper shuffling for the teacher.

A former colleague is now using Skype at her new school to connect the students in her Spanish classes to native speakers around the world. I think this is a great idea, but at my school the site is blocked. Any suggestions?

The ideas put forward are truly cutting edge. Reading this article has made me feel like a contemporary of Columbus. We are nowhere as progressive in my high school. In fact we are just beginning to take baby steps in the area of using high tech media to facilitate learning. An inspiring read.

We will be showing the same concept (that we called Digital Classroom) at the Sommet de la Francophonie in Montreux, Switzerland between Oct 17 and 25. Two teachers and four students (age 13-24) will be there and present web 2.0 applications in the classroom to delegates coming from more than 70 countries. Those who can read french can follow us at montreux2010.wikispaces.com

I think that educators need this type of course as much as our students do. They would uncover many sources of valuable information, learn how to share ideas and best practices, and better understand how technology (that many educators fear or see no value in) can impact their students' ability to become better communicators and independent learners - key skills for college and beyond.

I have been teaching this for nearly ten years. My most enduring lesson is teaching students to locate the social networks of others. A few years ago when Skype gave away outgoing calls on the gateway, students prank called 7-11 and connected them with Domino's Pizza.

I have to agree with you David..we must start with the educators. I am a consultant and work in schools where I have found teachers are unaware and indeed hostile to new technology in their schools. We need them to have opportunities such as the link-up mentioned in this post so they can understand the potential of it all and begin to feel the excitement that can be felt by the student comments that followed this post.

My experience is that Gen Yers are not this "tech savvy". Yes they know how to use facebook and you tube, and they text at the speed of light, but that does not make them tech savvy. So initiative to teach Web 2.0 has been great to grab their attention and interest and also pass on some 21st century skills and knowledge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SarN6PS1n_E

I agree and applaud the work of the schools mentioned. Technology is not something that should be kept out of the classroom and certainly not social technologies. Students and teachers are already using it in their personal life, it is not fair to try and teach apart from that world. Especially when technology can be used to bring experts from all over the world into your classroom, blogging can be an effective way of having students peer critique each other's work as well as express their own, programming can provide a valuable skill as well as provide a new way of looking at a math concept.

I maintain a current list of some of the popular free software that can enhance the classroom on my blog at Brokenairplane.com - Free Software for Schools. If you have any questions about how to implement them please let me know!

Once again, thanks for writing this article. It is so critical that we keep current with technology because then our students can apply it in their life immediately. Motivation and applicability are the keys to long term retention.

This makes perfect sense. This is how students communicate. This is how global multinationals communicate albeit with a business platform like Sharepoint. Learning is supposed to be relevant and authentic. One way to achieve this is by giving students real world tools to accomplish learning objectives and promote collaboration. Sharepoint provides Web 2.0 tools for wikis, blogs, and discussion threads.